Thursday, May 28, 2009

So as begin to plan my first derby this upcoming fall, i can't help but read about this book, which is on it's way to me very soon...
The Big One: An Island, an Obsession, and the Furious Pursuit of a Great Fish

The contest runs 24 hours a day for five weeks every September and October, and about 3,000 people show up to chase striped bass, bluefish, false albacore and bonito. They fish from boat or shore, with spinning gear or flyrods, using squid or eels or plugs. Catch the biggest fish and you'll get a shot at a $30,000 truck or boat. But most people are after a bit of island immortality. For derby devotees, winning the derby feels like slipping into the green jacket at the Masters.

I tagged along with many of the tournament's best anglers, and at times I felt like I was a student getting a peek at the answer key: I've fished for two decades but these guys were masters. So what did I discover?

1. The best fishermen are addicts. They're junkies after that next hit. (A number of the anglers I met during the derby were actual recovering alcoholics. Two had turned the competition into a sober New Year's Eve celebration.) One angler put it this way: "The people who are really good fishermen have obsessive-compulsive behaviors right? It’s like we do something and we do it to death."

2. That said, the derby takes run-of-the-mill fishaholics and transforms them into fanatics. More than $250,000 in cash and prizes are at stake, and anybody can win. Anybody. A 12-year-old girl took first-place with a 49-pound striper one year. People have been known to forgo sleep for weeks on end, lie to their friends about where they were fishing, spy on the competition, go out in dangerous weather ... whatever it takes.

3. Some fishermen might take a step past sanity in pursuit of a winning fish. One of the better derby stories I heard involved a guy fishing from a wharf in Edgartown. He hooked into a false albacore, then watched in horror as it wrapped around the propeller of a docked ferry boat. Undeterred, the man jumped aboard and tried in vain to free it. Then he had his buddy grab his snorkeling gear from the car, and he jumped overboard and tried to untangle the line by hand. The fish got away, but the angler left with a tremendous tale.

4. All fishermen are liars. But some fishermen are cheaters. Every fishing tournament deals with guys who stuffed their fish with weights, or caught them ahead of time and saved them for the contest weigh-in, or engaged in some other form of chicanery. These are the scoundrels who give fishing tournaments a bad name. The overwhelming majority of competitors aren't out to cheat, and the derby organizers do their best to crack down on those who do: A decade ago, they tossed out one of the Vineyard's true fishing legends after he was accused of poaching.

5. Truth is stranger than fiction. I actually already knew this, but if I had tried to script a better story for the derby I covered, it wouldn't have topped the tale of Lev Wlodyka. Lev had won the derby five times, but he found himself stuck behind another angler who caught a 56-pound striper in the first week of the derby. So he went out and improbably caught a giant fish of his own. When he brought it down to the weigh station it came in at 57 pounds. That set off a small celebration -- until the derby's filet master cut open its stomach and discovered a pound-and-a-half of lead. Did the champ cheat? Lev had a pretty solid explanation, but you'll have to get the book to find out what happened.

6. At the derby, people are watching. After I broke my old fishing rod and bought a new one, people noticed. "You look like a proper fisherman now," one told me. It's no wonder anglers get secretive to the point of paranoia during the contest: burying their fish, hiding in the dunes, going out in their boats at night with their running lights out.

7. If you're looking for a scene during the derby, check out Menemsha jetty. The guys working the infamous rocks up-island may not always be the friendliest on the island, but they're bound to do something entertaining. Like climb the navigational aid and cast for fish.

8. In September and October on the Vineyard, don't rely on stereotypes when you're trying to figure out who's a fisherman and who's a spectator. That septuagenarian woman? That venture capitalist with the pastel jacket? That little girl in pink? Yep, they're all trying to win the derby.

9. If I ever move to the Vineyard, I'd quickly become a manic fisherman every September. Even for the people who don't have the burning need to win (like me), even for guys who just want to hang out and drink beer and have a good time with their buddies for a couple of weeks, the derby is a grand excuse to fish every free hour of every day. Who knew that finding some camaraderie could be so exhausting?

10. There are plenty of great fishing spots around the Vineyard . But if I share them in any detail, the island fishing crowd will track me down and make me pay.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Well I think we’ve finally started to see the switch from “Spring Mode” to “Summer Mode”.

Tuesday evening was Ava and Conklin at the upper pond. Water was still cold to the touch. I ended up with 2 smaller bass, but that was about it. Not many fish were moving, but with temps in the mid 60’s, we weren’t expecting much…

With Amy in town, I didn’t get much fishing in over the weekend…

However, with Amy’s departure, I decided to take the ‘yak out and go check out one of the lake. It seems like every year there is a new tree down, or new holding area. With only a few hours, and the desire to just kind of relax, I grabbed the 3 weight and threw on a larger gill popper with the expectation of just exploring and getting a few fish to keep me occupied. Sure enough I hooked into probably 4-5 bass over 3 lbs, and landed only one of them. Frustrating to say the least. I spent each fish trying to figure out how I lost the last, and I think that just simply having a smaller hook allowed the bigger fish enough room to shake it out. It seemed like all the big fish were able to drop me with head shakes or jumps…

I ended the day with about 5-6 bass, about 1 gills, 2 rock bass, and a crappie. Really not bad for a few hours. Weather was gorgeous, and all fish came on poppers! I did manage to see some of the most interesting bass behavior I’ve ever experienced…

First, the bass fry have hatched, so you can see the swarms of them in the shallow water. The smaller gills seem to key in on them, and are surrounding the small school of fry, however as soon as a gill makes a break for a small bass, a big bass comes up out of no where and spooks the gills. I saw this maybe 4-5 times today with different fish in different areas. At one point, a bass beached a gill and himself on the shore for a moment by doing this. It was all really neat to see…

Anyways, no pictures for the week…all fishing which isn’t a bad thing…

Thursday, May 21, 2009

"Sig Hansen has a recurring role in the "Deadliest Catch" cable TV reality show. He has taken a stand against the Pebble project, a copper and gold mineral prospect that opponents say threatens fisheries. Hansen and his crew will star in print and TV ads against Pebble."

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Well we've started to get some life into us over the last week or so. Monday night Conklin and I began the weekly pilgrimage to the various ponds we call a second and third home over the summer. We got on the water a bit late but within minutes he had managed a bass on a streamer. The rest of the night was filled with big ass bluegills…Many larger then the hands that landed them. We were fishing the lower pond, so we knew the fish would be a bit larger, but it was quite humbling to see a gill put a decent bend in a 6 wt. We landed over 20 fish for the evening, and swore we’d come armed with 3 weights the next time…

Well, the next time came Friday Night, and we had 3 additional members to the party…Jimmy, and Conklin’s two daughters. They’re GREAT kids who do know the routine with fishing the ponds…And actually fared better then the boys. We ended up landed more bass, and fewer gills. With some of the algae starting to rise in the warm weather, we were mostly fishing pockets of open water…

Fish of the night went to Ava…and it was by far the most comical catch I’ve seen in ages…2-3lb bass in the hands of a child is priceless…pure bliss!

"In New England, particularly on the Connecticut River, Atlantic salmon are the fish of millions of dollars. And like the fisherman who keeps casting to them hoping his luck will change, we continue to pour tens of millions dollars into an Atlantic salmon recovery program hoping our luck will change."

The end of Steelhead season is usually welcomed by me. Some of my best childhood memories growing up was fishing bass on a Western Massachusetts Lake. I really took to fly fishing for bass about 3 years ago on the local golf ponds, so I’m really getting into the time of year that I have a soft spot for. I’ll often start early in the year pulling shad patterns, but move to topwater as quickly as possible. Watching a huge, knarly, air resistant fly get pummeled by a massive, angry bass has got to be one of the greatest sights…

SO…with my first bass landed in 2009, and with some warmer water, I left Thursday from work and neglected the grass cutting in hopes of my first top water bass of the year. After missing several lethargic swirls, a heavy rain shower chased me off and I went home feeling good with some action up top…

Friday, with Amy coming in, I had less then an hour to give the lower pond a going. Some fish were still on beds, although most had pulled off and began their forage in the deeper pockets of the pond. This particular pond grows incredible amounts of vegetation and algae. In about another month or so, it will become almost unfishable because of this, so I’ll often times try to focus on this early in the season. With cover already starting, I was focusing on hitting openings with smaller poppers, and getting a few sharp strips in before picking a new hole. Sure enough, about 15 minutes into the night, I had a fish take and a solid hook set. I was able to get her through most of the crap before I really felt what she had. Upon getting her closer to shore, I realized just what I had hooked into…

After looking through the pictures, I’ve estimated, with Amy, that she was about 22”, or about 6 lbs based on weight charts found online. I think this is being a bit generous…but would say she was definitely a 5+, which is up there with my largest bass ever, never mind on a fly rod. Released and even gave me a good splash on her take off…

I had one other small bass school me in a pocket of weeds, but considering the small amount of fishing I was able to do, I considered it a success. Will probably start the week fishing with Conklin for some more linesiders…maybe a canoe ride mixed in there…

Anyways, were excited to see the fish have returned from the deep water…Bring on the bigger fish…